Alright, after zeroing the HDD and doing a complete fresh install of the OS and my applications, Leopard is running a hundred times better. It still is not as smooth as Tiger, but there are some huge improvements in it.
1. Spotlight in Tiger was a dog. I used Quicksilver instead. Now, in 10.5, Spotlight is so fast and works so well I haven't even installed Quicksilver and I don't plan to. Apple shined on this one.
2. Spaces is really cool. It gets me using the number pad so I don't feel like I'm wasting all those switches. This way, I use 1-4 to select each space.
3. The Dock. It freezes or locks up still a bit more than I would like, but the way folders open is nice and handy. And the downloads folder, been doing it for years but props to Apple for putting it in there.
On the flip side, one of the weirder glitches I was getting from Leopard before I redid it was with the keyboard layout. I bought the Filco and that was the first full sized standard 101 / 104 layout keyboard I used since I installed Leopard the first time. The Enter key on the number pad came up as the Apple key. I changed the layout a couple times and it still read wrong. I took the Filco to work and there (G5 iMac running Tiger) all the keys registered correctly. Now, after the reinstall, everything is normal. I wonder if switching keyboards and layouts all the time messes something up ...